‘Beasts Of No Nation’ (2015)

The powerful new Netflix film Beasts of No Nation, starring Idris Elba, recently had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival and will screen at the Telluride Film Festival, Toronto Film Festival, and London Film Festival. Before this upcoming drama debuts in limited theaters and on Netflix October 16, the streaming service has released the first trailer. Given the buzz surrounding this film, don’t be surprised if you start hearing about its Oscar prospects by the end of the year.

Written and directed by Emmy Award winner Cary Fukunaga (True Detective, Sin Nombre) and starring Golden Globe winner Idris Elba (Luther, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom), Beasts of No Nation will debut Friday, October 16, 2015, the same day in Landmark theatres in the U.S. and worldwide on Netflix in all territories where the world’s leading Internet TV network is available. If the film is received well, it could be the first original Netflix movie to receive a Best Picture Oscar nomination, but we won’t find out for sure until early next year when the nominations are announced.

Beasts of No Nation is based on the highly acclaimed novel by Nigerian author Uzodinma Iweala, bringing to life the gripping tale of Agu, a child soldier torn from his family to fight in the civil war of an African country. Newcomer Abraham Attah gives a stunning portrayal of Agu, while Idris Elba dominates the screen in the role of Commandant, a warlord who takes in Agu and instructs him in the ways of war.

Courtesy of Netflix

Idris Elba earned a Golden Globe and NAACP Image Award nominations for his performance as Nelson Mandela in The Weinstein Company biopic Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom. In September 2014, he both starred in and executive produced box office hit No Good Deed, a thriller also starring Taraji P. Henson. He was also in Pierre Morel’s The Gunman, alongside Sean Penn and Javier Bardem, and he recently completed production on A Hundred Streets, which he is also producing, as well as James Watkins’ Bastille Day and Jon Favreau’s The Jungle Book.

The film is produced by Amy Kaufman and Cary Fukunaga (who previously worked together on Sin Nombre), Daniela Taplin Lundberg, Riva Marker and Daniel Crown for Red Crown Productions, along with Elba. Jeff Skoll and Jonathan King are executive producers for Participant Media; Donna Gigliotti is executive producer for Levantine Films; Elizabeth Koch and Kristina Kendall are executive producers for New Balloon; and Bill Benenson, Laura Bickford and Todd Courtney are also executive producers. Check out the first trailer and new poster for Beasts of No Nation before it debuts this fall.